Tripura govt seeks loan of Rs 200 Cr

Agartala, Dec 7: To manage the financial crunch and continue the ongoing development projects, Tripura government has decided to go for loan of Rs 200 crore either from HUDCO or Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) besides, seeking special package of Rs 358 crore from NITI Aayog.

The council of ministers in a meeting approved the proposal last night and directed the officials to start the process to fix the modalities and payment conditions at the earliest, so that the major portion of pending construction work could be completed during dry season by April next year.

While briefing media Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath accused Manik Sarkar led Left Front government, for the financial crisis and alleged that the previous government had approved as many as 231 construction projects under 21 departments without any planning and initiated the work before managing fund.

The Public Works Department (PWD) had approved altogether12 projects but no assurance of fund, Nath said, adding that all the projects were left half-done for past one year, as the government was not able to pay the dues to the contractors.

According to Nath, the state government has to pay Rs 421.1 crore to contractors for completion of the works. There is no provision of fund for maintenance of those buildings. Unless the state government manage to complete the projects, the entire money, which had already been spent, would be wastage.

“Considering the situation the government is now on the move to take loan of Rs 200 crore to complete the half-done building constructions. Apart from this, the state government is making efforts to get Rs 358 crore from the NITI Aayog to initiate development work as per our commitment and vision” Nath pointed out.

He further stated that BJP-IPFT government inherited direct liabilities of Rs 12000 cr and indirect financial burden of Rs 5000 cr from it’s predecessor and added, “Even then we have hiked the basic pay structure of the state govt employees at par with the Central government employees. At least 10 new programs and schemes have been launched in the state in past eight months by the government despite having serious financial crisis.” (UNI)